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Blue LED Inventor Loses Patent Fight
Swamp writes "Just a little heads-up for you engineers. The Mainichi Daily News is running this story saying 'A Nobel Prize candidate who invented a blue light-emitting diode (LED) used for display panels has no patent rights over the product as he conceded it to his former employer, a court ruled Thursday.'
'Japan's Patent Law provides that researchers who invent products as part of their company jobs have the patent for them, but adds that their employers can claim the patent after paying "deserving bonuses" to the inventors.' I guess not even being a Nobel Prize [contender] gives you credit anymore." His 20,000 yen bonus is about US$162 now.
intellectual property is boooooring!
Isn't that kinda redundent?
I doubt this guy was rich enough to start his own Blue LED research lab, which I am sure cost millions and millions of dollars.
If he wants to own his own patents, I'm sure there is no law in japan stopping him from quitting and starting his own lab with his own money.
This is just crazy to me. The guy is a RESEARCHER working for a COMPANY and people think that he should have a right to the PATENTS on things that he researched and invented ON THE JOB?
This is as bad as the MP3 whiners. Want free music? Make some, and give it away. Problem solved.
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
"I mean that was what they were paying you for in the first place."
Lots of professionals are able to hold on to a piece of their work, even if they did it under contract/salary. Think Hollywood, songwriters, photographers, some journalists, etc. Why couldn't it be different for scientists? No Reason! It would be trivial to arrange for a few percent royalty on Patents developed. Many universities operate this way with an 80%university/20%researcher split.
Corporations are not going to pay for employees to sit around all day doing expensive scientific research if they don't get the patents. The guy may have only been paid ~$162 for his patent, but how much did he earn from his employer while he was busy developing the technology?
Now, if the guy was a janitor that happened to come up with a blue LED, then I might say he has a point....but, Nichia Corporation is in the business of LEDs!!!
I read the exact story on this when Wired first published it, I believe it was called "True Boo-Roo" - a reference to the japanese use of the english language to discribe "true blue" since their word for Blue is the same as Green.
... and our chairman and president let me have the money I needed."
What I don't find amazing is the fact that the company took the right to the Blue Led. In the wired article they talked about how the company funded his research efforts for YEARS hoping that he would develop something. I don't know about you, but if I were to make such a risky investment I'd expect something for it - like what I invested in.
From the article itself, "Nakamura chose to work on gallium nitride not because he was confident of success, but "because I had had the bitter experience that if you do the same as everyone else, when it comes to making products, you can't sell them. So I chose a material that almost no one else was working on
Not only did he let him have the money, he paid his salary as an inventor for the company. This case is rediculous, on this one I'm for the corporation.
Ace
Riiigggghhhht...because before that company, Kary Mullis was an intellectual midget who never did anything. And he wouldn't have done anything without getting paid for it.
Lets pretend that scientists like him couldn't work in companies. Recognizing his sheer genius, people would buy him lab equipment if he promised to share his future wealth. Why would they do this even though he had no company? Because he's a freakin' genius.
Then he'd get rich.
And those who invested in him would get rich.
There wouldn't be any worry about HOW to sell it; he built the best mousetrap, and the world would have beaten a path to his door.
All without the benefit of that company.
Try thinking the other way: if Kary Mullis didn't exist, that company wouldn't have lasted very long.
Saying that those who take the risk cause inventions is like saying that those who jump off of buildings cause gravity. Necessity and passion are the mother and father of invention; business is merely an unfortunate side-effect- like the splat at the end of the jump.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
This argument goes both ways.
t ing->sales
Sure, without development, marketing, sales, etc an invention is just an invention, not a product.
But without invention and innovation, there is no new product (at least no profitable product).
The chain of product innovation science->invention->inovation->development->marke
is MULTIPLICATIVE, not ADDITIVE. If any of those terms is zero, the whole thing is zero.
A common misunderstanding is to give too much credit to the last steps (sales and marketing) because by the time the product gets in their hand, they take it for granted. Then, they can say: "see? before we got involved, this thing
was worthless. We turned it into something valuable, give us the big bonus".
That's why scientists and innovators get fscked
by marketing/sales. Scientist SHOULD unionize
and fight to retain ownership of their own fscking ideas.
The most common scenario is:
1 - you invent something
2 - your employer doesn't feel like turning it into a product and puts your invention on a shelf
3 - you get pissed off and tell them you quit
4 - they tell you that you can't work on anything
similar because THEY own the patent, and it's THEIR proprietary information, not yours. You can't use that information to build products outside the company.
5 - you say "it's my brain"
6 - they say: "in effect, we own a piece of your brain".
7 - you say: "well, if you won't develop and market this thing, at least let me put it out in opens source".
8 - they say: "oh no, why would we give away our valuable intellectual property".
9 - you quit in disgust, your invention never sees the light of days. You realize that 5 years
of your creative life went down the drain and
you are mad as hell.
Ask around you. Every creative techie has a story like this one to tell. The blue LED guy was lucky: at least his invention made it out the dooe, and he landed a nice academic post in the US.
- Anonycous Moward.
He will only get the $960,000 (10,000,000 swedish crown, 118,490,495 Yen) prize.
His company may have screwed him but at least he'll get the prize money.
Plus, a Nobel Prize looks pretty good on your resume after you ditch your dead beat employer.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.